Mission: Impossible
by Neon Pendulum
Summary: Bart had one job to complete when he went back to the past: Kill Jaime Reyes. Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated than that. Set pre-Before The Dawn.


Bart had a mission, a single mission, when he returned to the past: kill Jaime Reyes.

It would stop everything, or so he hoped. He was still a little sketchy on the details, but all he knew was that he had to stop the invasion of The Reach. Bart didn't know that much about the past, and most of what he knew was based on rumor, but what he could piece together brought him to this conclusion.

It didn't take him long to forget his mission.

The first thing that happened when he got to the past was that he simply indulged in everything. He talked to everyone about nearly everything (bewaring of possible spoilers), he went anywhere he wanted to anytime, he ate so many different things with so many different flavors, hell, he even became a full-fledged superhero. He even saved the day a couple times here and there. It was beyond awesome. His mission slowly was pushed to the back of his mind. It didn't change the fact that he was terrified of Blue Beetle, oh no. Every time he saw the boy, in costume or not, he would have a quick moment of panic, one that, luckily because he was a Speedster, would be missed by everyone. But it got easier and quicker to maintain a hyper and happy attitude around everyone, including the Big Bad Blue himself. Blue Beetle didn't seem so bad at this time period, too. It was hard to believe what Jaime would become, and sometimes Bart would think that the future where he came from didn't exist, because it couldn't. A lot of the time Bart would just bask in the present, past, whatever, and pretend that he had lived like that his entire life full, safe, and happy. Yet the fear of Blue Beetle still remained in the back of his mind, from years of it, ingrained like instinct. This would take plenty of time to change.

Bart and Jaime became friends. Bart would zoom down to El Paso whenever he felt like it and stop by Jaime's house. It was funny to see Jaime squirm a little, uncomfortable and worried about his secret identity until they got away from the city. It always reminded Bart that the terror-to-be was only human, now. Bart had so many opportunities to end Blue Beetle; when they were alone in the desert making stupid jokes or showing off their powers or when they were fighting in a mission and Bart could make his death look like it was done by a villain. Yet Bart never did anything. Was it cowardice? Was it mercy? He was ashamed to admit, it was friendship and trust. Jaime Reyes had wormed into his heart like the rest of the Young Justice team, confiding in him and displaying complete trust when the time came. It made him feel so guilty. There was only one moment when he had nearly gotten the job done, yet hadn't. It was during the first and only time he had slept over at Jaime's house.

It had been not long after the chicken weezy's stealing incident, when Bart was still getting used to the normal and human Blue Beetle. The idea had been suggested by Bart, naturally; Jaime still seemed very nervous about his superhero life and his civilian life possibly coinciding. Bart had hoped to get the job done while the boy was asleep, catching him and his Scarab off guard, yet he dreaded the idea more and more as the evening went on. Jaime had a family, and a great one at that. They were all so nice to Bart during dinner that he didn't want to even think about taking away their son. And then he and Jaime had gone skateboarding with a couple of Jaime's friends, Paco and Brenda. He learned how to ride a skateboard and he watched the trio do tricks around the skatepark and Bart dreaded even more what he was planning on doing. He cursed his soft-heartedness and tried to focus on what would result in keeping Jaime alive, but he couldn't. Bart had changed everything now that he had gone back to the past. Maybe his presence would prevent the future he knew from happening. Maybe Bart could see the warning signs and stop anything from happening. Or maybe his jump back in time would do nothing. Augh, why was time travel so confusing? Bart put on the front that he knew so much about everyone at this time, but in truth he knew nothing; the names of the heroes he knew were only known to him because they were legend, remnants of a happier time and martyrs in their quest to stop The Reach. How much of their stories were fact or fiction remained a mystery. He hoped his actions or lack of action would change the stories' endings, but he had no idea what to do. This night would change the future or maybe it wouldn't. If only Neutron was here to set him straight and tell him what should be done!

That night he and Jaime slept in the living room, only falling asleep a couple hours before dawn, the previous hours full of gorging themselves with junk food and watching movies "Haha, is the future like the future in Terminator, ese?". Not long after they fell asleep, Bart awoke courtesy of a nightmare, one of his future. Letting out a silent scream, he sat up, gasping and darting his eyes around, expecting someone out to get him or worse, another Beetle catching him slacking. Still panicked, he glanced at the lump of blankets that was Blue Beetle. The Blue Beetle. One of The Reach. There was nothing human underneath that armour, there was nothing with remorse or mercy underneath those blankets. He had to be stopped. Bart got up and silently pulled the blankets off. There was the menace, vulnerable. Nothing could stop him, not even the Scarab imbedded in his spine. If he moved fast enough, vibrated his hand right through his brain, it would end. It would be so simple, so quick. Blue Beetle wouldn't even feel it, he wouldn't even know he had died.

Blue Beetle shifted a little, startling Bart. Bart scooted away from the monster, afraid he'd be blasted into oblivion. This slavedriver slowly opened his eyes, as though listening to someone. Right. The Scarab. It knew, of course it knew. It knew everything. Bart missed his chance. Now he would die.

"Nah, man, he wouldn't do that. He's a friend," Jaime said, sitting up and slowly rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His expression turned into one of annoyance and he muttered, "You probably dreamt it or something. Yeah I know you're an alien robot parasite thing. Jeez, calm down, wouldya? No! No laser cannon! Oh, hey Bart, did we-I, I, wake you?" Oh. Shit. Bart was not feeling the mode right then. He was dead he was dead he was dea-right, Jaime was addressing him.

"Um, uh, nope, nah, it's cool, dude." Bart must've looked a little freaked out, because Jaime felt the need to explain his apparent schizophrenia.

"I guess I understand why you're kinda weirded out, ese. I probably look crazy to you or something, like I do to everyone else. No, shush! I'm going to tell him...well I trust him. Eheh," he sheepishly looked at Bart. "The Scarab in my back, y'know? It sometimes kinda talks to me." Jaime paused and Bart figured that meant he had to respond. What was he supposed to say? He knew that already; he knew all about the dangers of the parasites. It didn't really matter what he said, for the spotlight was off of Bart now, thankfully.

"Oh, yeah, well it's cool, _ese_," Bart said, attempting to sound normal as he tried the Spanish word on his tongue, trying to make it sound like how Jaime said it. Said boy laughed, lightening the mood.

"Spanish is definitely not your forte, dude. You can stick with English. So you don't think it's weird or anything? Like run away and tell everyone about it kind of weird?" Bart knew what Jaime implied, and he responded with a reassuring,

"No one will know," and a smile.

"Cool," Jaime breathed in relief. "I'm just worried people would try and experiment on me or something if they knew the Scarab was alive and talking to me. Y'know, like in the movies and stuff."

"Jaime, dude, you're working amongst aliens and metahumans. A talking Scarab probably wouldn't sound so crazy to them," Bart joked.

They ended up staying up after that, Bart's near murder not brought up or possibly not even noticed by Jaime. When Bart left Jaime's house a few hours later, he knew he wouldn't be able to complete his mission. He had been entrusted a huge secret by Jaime and he simply couldn't see this boy becoming a menace in the future. Bart had nearly killed him and even with the voice of the Scarab in his brain, Jaime still stupidly trusted Bart over the Scarab. It would take a few more interactions to confirm this, but the idea was settled in his mind that Jaime Reyes was and would never be a villain. Never. Bart hoped that maybe thanks to that night the future had changed. Maybe every little thing he did during each mission or each conversation he had with Jaime would alter the events that would occur. The Jaime that he knew and was coming to know simply couldn't be the one in the future, Bart would make sure of it.

For a while Bart figured that maybe he really had fixed the future. Nothing particularly unusual had happened regarding Blue Beetle and Bart became used to the routine of his life, missions and friends and food.

Unfortunately, The Reach still arrived.

-  
All based on the presumption that Bart wouldn't just know everything about everything. His future looks pretty bleak and lacking of books or computers so most of his information would probably be based from rumor. He doesn't necessarily know how to fix the future or what causes all of the bad stuff to happen so he has to draw conclusions.


End file.
